Report: Plugging Australia’s e-waste Gap
Analysing the gaps in understanding and managing Australia’s e-waste crisis
There’s a significant knowledge gap between the reality of Australia’s e-waste crisis and the role consumers and businesses are playing to manage it.
So we’ve quantified that gap by analysing both the top 200 ASX company’s pledges and actions with regard to their e-waste, and the public’s understanding of the crisis.
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Download the complete report to learn more about these highlights (and low lights) from our analysis of the latest sustainability reports from the ASX Top 200 corporates:
119% of our ASX Top 200 companies mention e-waste in their most recent sustainability reports
244% report on waste streams but a vast majority failed to include e-waste
3Of the 38 companies that do mention e-waste, only 26% provided e-waste stats and 13% reported the amount of e-waste diverted from landfill
4Finance and energy are two industries that significantly lag in their acknowledgment and management of e-waste
5Only one company out of the ASX 200 discusses the relationship between Scope 3 emissions and e-waste
6Only 43% mention supporting a circular economy and within that, only 12% actually discuss the relationship between e-waste disposal and enriching the circular economy
With regard to the general public, we discovered that we are largely aware of our waste habits, but haven’t grasped the magnitude of the e-waste crisis:
- 17% of Australians are not aware that e-waste is a problem
- 35% don’t know they can recycle their e-waste
- 63% are not aware that e-waste is often dumped in developing countries
117% of Australians are not aware that e-waste is a problem
235% don’t know they can recycle their e-waste
363% are not aware that e-waste is often dumped in developing countries
The scale of the problem we face
The onus falls on us all.
On consumers to understand end-of-life considerations and seek our ethical disposal services.
On business to have an e-waste strategy that looks at repurposing, reuse and recycling in the most sustainable way – not just the cheapest.
And on Governments to set a legislative framework that enables world-class recycling practices that increase accountability on business and individuals to do the right thing…
If our collective e-waste mentality and habits don’t change, then Australia will continue to be one of the largest producers of e-waste globally, leading to devastating environmental, economic, social and health outcomes
When we started, and sadly still common today, the approach to e-waste recycling involves manual dismantling, removal of just a few valuable commodities and an enormous amount of product going into the ground. Often, commodity recovery uses smelters which create their own significant environmental impact.
The team also wanted to recover these metals and enable their reuse in manufacturing, to offset some of the devastating environmental impacts of virgin mining.